As the Colts and the Saints prepare to face off in Miami on Sunday for Super Bowl XLIV, tour historic homes in each of the team’s hometowns.
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Don and Charlene Maher bought this three-story home in Indianapolis three years ago. They closed on the property two hours before kickoff of Super Bowl XLI, Ms. Maher says. In that game, the Indianapolis Colts defeated the Chicago Bears.
Located in the Meridian-Kessler neighborhood, the neoclassical home was built in 1917 and measures 6,515 square feet.
The home has two sunrooms, one of which is shown here. It also has five bedrooms and three and a half bathrooms, as well as slate and hardwood floors, four fireplaces and more than 40 French doors.
The previous owner was a real estate developer, Ms. Maher says, and had updated the homes structure, wiring, and plumbing systems. The Mahers, who have moved several times across the US and had once lived in the Indianapolis suburbs, specifically wanted to live in a historic home. The good condition of this home was a big attraction. Pictured here is the second sunroom.
This home is well suited for entertaining, Ms. Maher says, both for formal gatherings on the first floor and informal ones—such as Super Bowl parties—in the finished basement.
Ms. Mahers job in the health industry has been transferred to Minneapolis, where she relocated last June. Her Husband, an airframe and power plant mechanic for FedEx, will join her once this home sells. It hit the market in February 2009 with an asking price of $1.425 million. The price was cut $1.3million in August.
“Honestly, if I could pick up the house and take it with me I would because it’s been the perfect house for us,” says Maher, 50. “It’s a little heartbreaking to have to leave it behind.”
Ms. Mahers daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter are staying in the house with Mr. Maher while it is on the market, and Ms. Maher suspects they will be throwing a Super Bowl party this Sunday. Her daughter, 29, is a huge Colts fan, she says.
Ms. Maher, who frequently makes trips to Indianapolis, says she is waiting for the home to sell and her husband to join her full time before looking for a home in Minnesota.
Nancy Mutchmore of CENTURY 21 Scheetz has the listing.
Myra and Carl deGersdorff bought this 19th century home on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans in 2005 just a few weeks after hurricane Katrina hit the city. The home was not damaged, “only on shutter of the house had blown off,” says Ms. deGersdorff, who is the fifth generation of her family to live in the city.
When she moved into the home, Ms. deGersdorff made aesthetic changes, such as painting walls a burgundy color. She also stained some of the woodwork. The biggest project, she says, was making the house “completely hurricane-ready” by installing a house generator and electric roll down shutters over the windows.
The home has four bedrooms and four and a half bathrooms in 4,382 square feet. It also has original brass and crystal chandeliers, marble mantels, 14-foot ceilings, a bricked patio and a pool. The master suite has his and her bathrooms.
Mr. deGersdorff, 54, will be attending the Super Bowl in Miami on Sunday, but Ms. deGersdorff, 53, will be in New Orleans taking care of “the zoo”—the couple has eight pets, including three dogs, two cats and three exotic birds. A macaw named Baby is shown here in the home’s office. Ms. deGersdorff says she and her husband are huge Saints fans, and she will be throwing a party for family and friends this Sunday.
Ms. deGersdorff says, she and her husband, both retired, are selling the home to find another in the city with a larger yard that can better accommodate the dogs. The pool takes up much of this home’s yard space, she says. When they bought the home, they were relocating from Pennsylvania, where they had a home on two acres—plenty of room for the dogs, she says.
The home has been on the market since early fall with as asking price of $1.299 million.
Eleanor Farnsworth of Prudential Gardner, Realtors has the listing.